December 16th class notes & report outline

Class notes:

Part 2: Investigating diversity of Symbiodinium: past to present.
 What are zooxanthellae?
 Algae that live in the coral polyp’s surface layer
 Algae get nutrients and a safe place to grow
 Corals get oxygen and help with waste removal
 Corals also get most of their food from the algae
 Symbiosis overview
 Genus Symbiodinium
 Described in 1962 by H. Freudenthal.
 Within dinoflagellates.
 Was though there was one single species worldwide.

 Morphology & life cycle
 Host species
 Cnidaria (corals, jellyfish, anemone, zoanthids, octocorals).
 Mollusca (clams, snails).
 Platyhelminthes (flatworms).
 Porifera (sponges).
 Protista (forams).
 First genetic studies
 Rowan & Powers 1991.
 Utlized 18S ribosomal DNA.
 Sampled from corals & anemones.
 Found unexpected diversity!
 Recommended further genetic studies.

 Second wave of studies
 Used faster evolving DNA markers.
 Particularly ITS-rDNA.
 Even more diversity!
 Zooxanthellae clade
DNA analyses
Clade: A group composed of all the species descended from a single common ancestor
 Diversity
 Eight major clades known.
 Within each clade many subclades.
 Do not know what taxonomic level clades are equal to.
 Evolution and biogeography
 Many studies have catalogued diversity.
 Can now understand on many scales.
 Can predict evolution.
 Specific types
 Many subclades or types associate with similar hosts.
 Could be co-evolution.
 Symbiodinium in Zoanthus sansibaricus
 We sampled the same species from 4 locations.
 Each host colony was shown to associate with one subclade of Symbiodinium.
 Subclade C1/C3 was common in the north, and subclade A1 was dominant in the south.
 C1/C3 has been shown to be a dominant Indo-Pacific “generalist”, with C15 common in Porites spp., and A1 a shallow-water specialist.
 Modes of transmission & flexibility
 2 major types; a) vertical and b) horizontal.
 Vertical should result in more co-evolution and less flexibility.
 Also, in horizontal, ZX from environment still rare.
 Changes in ZX
over time?
 Changes have been seen over time in content of ZX within coral colonies!
 Particularly after bleaching events.
 ZX shuffling?
 Adaptive Bleaching Hypothesis (ABH).
 Very controversial, large conservation implications.
 Two ways this occurs.
 Diversity within colonies
 Same colony may have different ZX at different locations!
 Differences in types
 Since we know diversity, we can experiment with different conditions.
 Many ZX are easy to culture.
 Control light, temperature, nutrients, etc.

 Can also then experiment in situ.
 Symbiodinium spp. characters
 Believed to alternate between a free-living stage with flagella, and a non-motile stage with chlorophyll.
 Believed to sexually reproduce, although this has not been observed.
 Overall morphological condition can degrade based on non-optimal environmental conditions, in particular low (<15 º C) and high (>30ºC) sustained ocean temperatures.
 “Adaptive bleaching” hypothesis
 Bleaching may enable corals to adopt different classes of zooxanthellae, better suited for a new environment. By:
 ‘symbiont switching’ (a new clade from exogenous sources) or
 ‘symbiont shuffling’ (host contains multiple clades and a shift in dominance occurs).

 Can we protect corals from bleaching?

 Marine invertebrate - Symbiodinium spp. symbioses overview
 Symbiodinium spp. found in many clonal cnidarians (and other invertebrates) in tropical and sub-tropical oceans. Symbiodinium are the main reason coral reefs exist and have large levels of diversity.
 Symbiodinium is now divided into 8 “clades” labelled A-H (of unknown taxonomic level) with many “subclades” (designated by numbers) within each clade (see various works by Pochon et al., and LaJeunesse et al.)
 Host species’ association with various clades and subclades of Symbiodinium (often more than one) may be at least partially responsible for differences in bleaching patterns seen during bleaching events (i.e. ENSO event of 2001, etc.).
 Also, some host species have been shown to have flexible associations with Symbiodinium over biogeographical ranges (depth, latitude, etc.) or time (summer versus winter, etc.). This is part of the Adaptive Bleaching Hypothesis (ABH) (Buddemier and Fautin 2004; Baker 2001), and is very contentious.
 Need to understand Symbiodinium diversity within zoanthids before any discussion of symbiotic zoanthid ecology can be conducted.
References:
1. Rowan & Powers. 1991. Molecular genetic identification of symbiotic dinoflagellates (zooxanthellae). Marine Ecology Progress Series 71: 65-73.
2. Stat et al. 2006. The evolutionary history of Symbiodinium and scleractinian hosts - Symbiosis, diversity, and the effect of climate change. Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 8: 23-43.
3. LaJeunesse 2005. ‘Species’ radiations of symbiotic dinoflagellates in the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific since the Miocene-Pliocene transition. Molecular Biology and Evolution 22: 570-581.
4. Pochon et al. 2004. Biogeographic partitioning and host specialization among foramineferan dinoflagellate symbionts (Symbiodinium; Dinophyta). Marine Biology 139: 17-27.

Coral Reef Diversity and Conservation
J.D. Reimer
Assignment Information:
You and your team (2~3 people) must apply for research funding for the following research grant:

The MISE Coral Reef Conservation Fund
This fund provides grants for projects that build private-public partnerships through research that aims to reduce and prevent the degradation of coral refs and associated reef habitats (seagrass beds, mangroves, etc). Projects will be for two years from April 2010.
Part 1 - Application: please submit the following to Science room 353 by 17:00 on Monday, January 25th.
1. Cover page (1 page): Include group name, and project title.
2. Research background and goals (2 pages maximum): provide a background that anyone with science training can understand, clearly state the project goal(s), and explain the necessity of the project.
3. Methods (2 pages maximum): Include detailed explanation of methods used, and a concrete timeline to be followed. If research facilities and equipment are to be used at an institution, include details.
4. Expected results (1 page maximum): Describe concretely what results can be expected, how these results will benefit coral reefs, and how these results will benefit future coral reef conservation research.
5. Team outline (2 pages maximum): Include team member information on skills, relevant work history and experience, and scientific publications (if any). Designate roles for each person. Do NOT include personal private information.
6. Budget (1 page maximum): Divide budget into the following items; 1) travel expenses, 2) equipment (over 100,000 JPY), 3) expendables & items less than 100,000 JPY, 4) other expenses (guides, part-time jobs, rentals, post, etc). Include a budget for 2 years. Budgets may not exceed 30,000,000 JPY in total for 2 years, and cannot be more than 20,000,000 JPY in one year.

Part 2 – Visual presentation: Wednesday, January 27th
All teams will give a 5-minute PowerPoint presentation on their projects on during class. Other students and JDR will vote on their project; this will be 20% of your project mark. There are no rules on this presentation other than the time limit and the use of PowerPoint.
Hints:
a. Your project must be realistic, and must include as many details as possible to make it easy to understand. It can be as simple or large-scale as possible, but ideas must be logical. The project can build on other plans, but these plans must be referenced.
b. Using scientific references increases the amount of knowledge you have access to. On the other hand, using information without references will decrease your score. Use Google Scholar or other sources of information to access scientific literature quickly. Space is limited, so choose references well.
c. Figures and graphs greatly help make ideas easy to understand.
d. For budgets, catalogues may be useful. Please visit JDR’s lab to borrow any catalogue you need.
Marking:
This project is very open-ended. Grades will be assigned based on:
1. originality (new ideas, etc.): 20 points
2. necessity: 20 points
3. realistic possibility: 20 points
4. style & background research: 20 points
5. visual presentation and votes: 20 points
Remember:
 Reports are to be done in groups of 2-3 people.
 Please write which person did what part of the report.
 Due date is January 25th by 17:00.
If you have any questions or problems please contact JDR as soon as you can, either at his office or by e-mail.